THE IRRl GA TION A GE. 371 



and the land, and jet these waters are useless to California as there 

 are no plains in California on the eastern slope of the Sierra Nevada 

 Mountains. That region is entirely mountainous. 



Now, the torrential flow of these rivers has increased in late 

 years. Why? Because the Government has, permitted these moun- 

 tains to be denuded of their forests. The forests are the natural pro- 

 tectors of the great snow banks, which in themselves are natural res- 

 ervoirs of water. If the forests remain, the snows melt much more 

 gradually, and thus a more equal flow of the streams is maintained, 

 permitting a wider extent of agriculture; but as these forests are de- 

 stroyed and the snow banks are exposed to the fierce rays of the sun, 

 the result is a great flow of water in the months of April, May and 

 June, and no water when it is most required. The consequence is 

 that the lowest flow of the streams limits the area of land that can be 

 brought under cultivation. You cannot make your calculations with 

 reference to the flood flow of- the stream, because that is maintained 

 only during the early months, and if you measure your reclamation by 

 that flow your lands would be without water in July and August, and 

 so it is that reclamation by private enterprise of lands adjoining these 

 streams has been necessarily limited by their periods of lowest flow. 



The problem is to prevent this water from flowing into these 

 great lakes in the desert and to store them in the mountains in places 

 naturally adapted for reservoirs, and thus maintain an equal flow of 

 the streams throughout the agricultural season, instead of having a 

 rushing torrent at one time and no water at another, 



Nevada is reproached to-day because she is impoverished, and yet 

 she is prostrated because the Federal Government has neglected its 

 duty. Ninety-five per cent of the lands in Nevada are public lands? 

 which pay no taxes of any kind for State or local government, and the 

 owners of the other 5 per cent have to administer the laws and th e 

 police and the .road building of the entire State. Nevada and Utah 

 are similar in topography, in soil, and in general resources. They 

 have an area equal to that of Spain. Spain is entirely cultivated by 

 means of irrigation, except along the seashore. Spain supports 

 17,000,000 people. If a liberal policy were pursued in Nevada and 

 Utah of preserving the fores ts, of conserving the flood waters, and 

 utilizing the natural resources of those States, they could easily main- 

 tain an equal population. Within one hundred years this country will 

 have 300,000,000 people, and the proper development of this arid coun 

 try, the home of millions yet to come, should be an essential part of 

 the govermental policy. 



Now, I ask, who should undertake this work? Who can undertake 

 the work? The view of the people of the arid region is that this is a 

 public work of internal improvement which ought to be undertaken by 



